Making history

It’s official! Pete Buttigieg will be the first out gay man ever to participate in a presidential debate

Pete Buttigieg during CNN town hall

This is major. Mayor Pete Buttigieg just surpassed the donor goal needed to qualify for participation in the first Democratic primary debate in June.

The Democratic National Committee requires that a candidate receive a minimum of 65,000 individual donors before being invited to the debate stage.

Well, this past weekend, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana met the criteria and then some.

Related: Gay guys weigh in on openly gay 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Pete for America Exploratory Committee said, “We are building a community that believes in this bold vision for the future, and there are tens of thousands of people (75,025 to be exact) around the country who invested because they believe a midwestern, millennial, war veteran, mayoral voice should be part of the conversation.”

Meanwhile, Buttigieg tweeted about hitting the milestone on Saturday:

This means that, for the first time in history, an out gay man will participate on stage in a Democratic presidential debate.

Following CNN’s Town Hall, Buttigieg had the largest fundraising day of his potential 2020 campaign, raking in over $600,000 in just 24 hours.

Related: “F*g perv for President”: Homophobes are already coming for openly gay 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg

Note: As some have mentioned, Fred Karger ran for President in 2012 as a Republican, but did not appear in any debates. Buttigieg will be the first in either parties debates.

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